We are teaming-up this week with our friends at The Children's Book Shop on Washington Street in Brookline for recommendations of animal superstars you can find in children's stories. So after a performance of Tales of Beatrix Potter, December 3-6, or A Tale of the Monkey King, December 10-13, make sure to stop by The Children's Book Shop down the street from the theater for more exciting stories starring your favorite celebrity creatures!

Greetings from The Children’s Book Shop! Animal superstars make for great puppet playtime—and they make for great picture books, too! We’re excited to introduce you to some of our current favorite stories featuring fantastic animal characters.

1. The Bear’s Surprise by Benjamin Chaud

Spring has finally arrived but when Little Bear wakes up, his Mama and Papa are nowhere to be found. Following a winding path that leads into holes, through pipes, and out of a washing machine, Little Bear ends up at the circus where he finds his Papa and Mama—performing! Little Bear, Mama Bear, Papa Bear, and even Tiny Bear become the stars of the circus, for the only thing better than a family of bears is a family of acrobatic ones.

2. Gaston by Kelly DiPucchio; illustrated by Christian Robinson

Mrs. Poodle has four little puppies Fi-Fi, Foo-Foo, Ooh-La-La, and Gaston. Though Gaston grows to be much larger than the rest, he always tries his hardest to be proper. Come springtime, when Mrs. Poodle takes her puppies to the park, she and Mrs. Bulldog realize there's been a horrible mistake: Antoinette and Gaston must have been switched at birth! Instead of switching back, they realize it’s more important to feel like you belong than to look like you belong. The bulldogs learn something about being proper and the poodles learn a little about playing rough… giving everyone the best of both worlds!

3. Frog on a Log? by Kes Gray; illustrated by Jim Field

Should a frog have to sit on a log, just for the sake of a rhyme? Though the frog would like to leave his painful perch, the cat insists that this is the way things have to be, as sure as cats sit on mats. The confused frog goes through animals from lions to gibbons asking the cat where they sit. Responding with clever rhymes, the cat seemingly has an answer for everything… even when the frog asks what dogs sit on!

4. Frog and Toad Storybook Treasury by Arnold Lobel

The Frog and Toad stories are absolute classics—as fun for those familiar with the iconic pair to return to as they are for new readers. For the first time, all of the stories—Frog and Toad are Friends, Frog and Toad Together, Frog and Toad All Year, and Days with Frog and Toad—are collected in one book, making it easy to (re)discover the friends’ adventures in their woodland habitat throughout the seasons.

5. I Really Like Slop! by Mo Willems

What’s better than a pig and an elephant who are best friends? In the latest installment of Mo Willems’s Elephant and Piggie early reader series, Piggie makes her favorite slop and manages to convince Gerald to try it—despite the old shoe taste! Much like all of Mo Willem’s books, I Really Like Slop will leave you laughing and wishing for talking animals as best friends, too.

The Children’s Book Shop is a very short walk from the Puppet Showplace Theater, so if you’re up for more animal hijinks after enjoying expert puppetry and performance, come visit us at 237 Washington Street.